CTO/CIO relationships

Does your organization have a CIO and/or CTO? If so how many? Is your organization more R&D oriented? What have you found is the best way to establish the relative roles of a CIO/CTO? Is there much overlap?

I just posted my thoughts on this subject to The Roles of CIOs and CTOs. I’d really appreciate any comments or thoughts on this document. The role of CTO is still being defined, but I think we need to start defining it.

I enjoyed your post, Andy. Because my organization is on the smaller size, I end up serving as both the CIO and CTO. I do believe there is overlap between these two roles and in smaller organizations there has to be. As the organization gets bigger and the amount of time needed to dedicate to these two roles gets greater, then that would be the time when they must seperate.

I view the roles as having slightly different focus and time spent in the trees versus the forest analogy. The CIO spends much more time viewing the forest and big picture while still being aware of whats happening down in the trees. The CTO spends more time viewing the trees and what’s happening day to day but is able to get above the trees at times to see the forest.

I have saved your post and will refer back to it as I have time to digest it a little more in my situation. Thanks.

I really appreciate the feedback, Robert. There seems to be a great deal of diversity on how the positions are implemented in various organizations. If you don’t mind, I’ll add your “forest and trees” analogy to my growing list of implementations.

For those of you interested in some background about CTO roles in the US Federal space, here are some resources. Note in particular the proposed HR 1261 CTO Act (text pdf included) which would give CTOs the legislative foundation that the Clinger-Cohen Act gives CIOs. Enjoy!

At Lockheed Martin, the CTO reports directly to the CEO. There is no overall CIO who reports to the CEO. Perhaps this is a sign that the CEO assumed the role of both the CEO and CIO (not really sure here…), which would make sense being that Lockheed Martin is a high tech Defense and Space company.

After visiting about 4 dozen U.S. based companies over the past 5 years, the CIO and CTO appear to have a symbiotic relationship with the CTO reporting to the CIO; however, the CTO and CIO work as a team. The CTO is technically focused whereas the CIO is business focused but still needs to be aware of technical and information assurance issues (the CISO either reported to the CIO or CEO in private industry).